(1) Posted by Hauke Reddmann [Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 11:21]
Johannes Berger and the Medieval Knight Romantic :-)
I have always been a knight admirer on the chess board -
but also in literature, probably only Don Quixote has
read more knight novels :-)
So there is this bewitched castle (don't ask me where,
some Arthur a grammar, I think), and the savior has
to beat the castles dame at chess. Snag: Every loss
allows a revanche, unless <=4 moves. You can guess
that the castle is more filled with chess players
than the CCH at Linkes Gegen Rechtes Alsterufer :-)
So, the story leaves the place with an aside that
somewhen later, another random knight came by and
unpacked the "coup de berger". I always wondered what
Johannes Berger did in a medieval castle and if this
was a modern transliteration of an old mate - until
I today read another of my yearly 1000 books and
found that "berger" is simply the French word for
shepherd - and we all know THAT mate.